World: New health threat in Cuba

MIAMI - Cuban doctors already facing outbreaks of dengue and cholera are now reporting the island's first cases of Chikungunya, a painful, mosquito-borne fever spreading across the Caribbean, according to an independent journalist.

Doctors at the Vladimir Ilich Lenin General University Hospital in the eastern city of Holguin have confirmed dozens of cases of the fever in several parts of eastern Cuba, journalist Mario Hechavarria reported for the Hablemos Press news agency.

Hospital workers told him that dozens of cases had been confirmed with laboratory tests.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Vietnam asks China to leave disputed waters

UNITED NATIONS - Vietnam's U.N. ambassador is urging China to withdraw its oil rig and more than 100 ships from the South China Sea to create "an environment" for negotiations on the disputed waters which it maintains are part of its exclusive economic zone.

But Ambassador Le Hoai Trung said in an interview Tuesday that China refuses to engage in dialogue and insists there is no dispute because the waters around the rig belongs to China.

MEXICO

6 shot to death in possible drug gang dispute

MEXICO CITY - Six people, including two minors, were shot to death inside a Mexico City home in a possible dispute among drug gangs, authorities said Tuesday.

Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Rios said the killings late Monday in Cuautepec could be revenge for last week's slaying of an alleged drug dealer.

The northern neighborhood of Cuautepec is near Mexico state, which in recent months has seen an increase in killings linked to drug cartels.

Mexico City officials insist that drug cartels don't have a presence in the capital like they do in other states and point to the fact that massacres and grenade attacks haven't happened in the city of 9 million people.